Beginning of the End
by iamthecabbatar
Summary: In a timeline where the genocide never happened, the worlds of Avatar and Legend of Korra combine to tell the story of a girl growing up in Republic City during the extreme success of the Equalist revolution- and during the reign of the last Avatar.
1. Chapter 1

It was snowing when Avatar Korra died, it was snowing when I was born, and it was snowing right now.

I stood under a street light, its greenish light reflecting off of the snowflakes. I watched as one of the white flakes fell slowly, the wind causing it to be sent slightly to the right before it joined its counterparts on the sidewalk I was walking on.

The snow that had found its way into my dark brown hair had yet to be removed by the gently blowing, cold wind that was sweeping Republic City. As I approached the bus stop, I looked at the time on my watch.

Spirits, I missed my bus by ten minutes.

I looked around, noticing that the dimly-lit streets were empty.

Maybe the snow had slowed the bus down and it was running behind...

I tried to remain optimistic by waiting for a few minutes before I finally decided that sitting on the cold, metal bench for much longer was not worth it. I grabbed my purse and continued walking, hoping my parents weren't conscious of my extended absence.

The sidewalk was slick and I stumbled as I tried to rush home, holding my arms out to prepare myself for the fall that never came. I sighed thankfully and took a deep breath, attempting to slow down my racing heartbeat. A streetlight flickered once I continued to walk, the electricity crackling loudly in the frigid air.

Many of the brick buildings surrounding me glistened under the mellow light provided by the streetlamps, their windows either dark or lit by a warm, yellow light behind a curtain. No one kept their curtains drawn back, especially at this hour.

I looked at the horizon, which was the only way I'd be able to see the sky properly because of the lights. The sun was no longer visible, but its light still managed to reach past the horizon line and caused the sky around it to turn a light green color.

The sky reminded me of a short vase in my living room. It was transparent, but also that very same shade of green and it was always on a desk next to the door. It had little white flowers painted all over it, but I doubt it's ever held one flower inside of it. I remember at one point we had put a candle at the bottom and would use it to light my parent's room during bender raids, so that our house would look empty.

I felt a chill run down my spine, and it wasn't because of the weather. There hadn't been a bending raid in Republic City in years; many people believed there were no more in the town. The optimist non-benders assumed that the raids had scared off all of the bending families, while the skeptics knew better than to think that the city was completely rid of the elementally gifted.

The lights seemed to shine brighter the longer I walked, and they didn't flicker or buzz as much. As the city fell asleep, its power supply was now concentrated solely on public lighting rather than powering people's homes and businesses. It was a relief, being able to see so far in front of me.

I heard someone's heater light up as I passed by their house, the sound of flames consuming the air around it triggering a memory that was deeply ingrained in my mind.

A very tall man held a stick close to a boy's face, one who wasn't much older than me, perhaps the same age. I hid behind the corner of an alley as the boy backed into the brick wall behind him.

Time seemed to go in slow motion as the burly man with yellow teeth and unkempt sideburns stepped closer to the kid. A puddle nearby allowed me to see the boy's reflection as the man continued to assault him. The dark-haired boy tolerated several hard blows to the stomach with the blunt object before he keeled over, coughing up blood. The thick, red liquid spattered on the man's shoes, the velocity and direction of his cough causing them to appear as if his shoes had been made with a small, red teardrop pattern over his white sneakers.

He didn't seem to notice the blood on his shoes as he reached inside his backpack, kicking the boy with incredible force any time he tried to move while he was searching through his belongings.

I didn't do anything. I should have, but I just watched.

The assailant grabbed a can of spray paint from his bag, first spraying the end of the stick he had beat the boy with until a thick coat of wet paint took over the previously bloody and splintered surface. He smiled wickedly as he grabbed the boy's face, forcing him to look up at his sick countenance.

"I saw you playing with fire, hotshot."

The boy spat more blood out at him and snarled, showing his red teeth.

The man laughed, "All you benders all act the same, you know."

My eyes grew wide when he said bender; I had heard people say it out loud, but never actually towards someone in such an aggressive way.

The boy glared his eyes and swallowed the blood that was in his mouth, his timid eyes glancing to me briefly.

I held my breath and quickly moved back around the corner, expecting the man to come running out at me. He evidently didn't catch the boy's silent cry for help and continued talking.

"Too much pride, you guys never know when you're beaten."

Even then, the way the man said "you're" sounded like he was saying "your". The subtle difference in the elongation of the vowels in the word that he was lacking made me think he was uneducated, or at least undereducated. I never quite understood why this stood out to me, but it did and I haven't forgotten it.

He pulled a lighter from his pocket, his malicious grin growing wider as he lit the paint-soaked end of the stick. "I can play with fire too, kid."

He shook the paint can vigorously and laughed before spraying it, causing the flames to shoot out at the boy's face. His entire face was soon engulfed in flames and the man ran away, not noticing me shaking and crouched outside of the alleyway.

Once the man left, I ran to the boy, cringing at the burn that now took over half of his face. He looked up at me with lazy eyes and I wept for him, regretting my previous actions and not helping him sooner.

I picked him up and put one of his arms around my shoulder, practically dragging him out of the alley.

"Where do you live?"

A groan escaped his throat.

"I need to know where you live!" I shouted, looking over at him.

His eye that wasn't burnt opened slightly and he pointed at a name on his lunch box, which was spilled all over the wet concrete around us.

I squinted with my eyes and sighed in relief, recognizing the unique last name and knowing that the house wasn't far from where we were.

"My dad….he's going to kill me for… for not fighting... back." He said, his legs barely allowing him to walk alongside me even with me supporting most of his weight.

"It's okay, he'll probably be happy that you're okay."I attempted to reassure him as we got closer to his home.

"No...No he won't."

I wasn't sure how to respond, especially when he asked me if I was a bender. I continued to look forward as we approached the beautiful and large house he lived in. I was thanked by whoever opened the door and he was taken inside.

I never saw him again, but it didn't keep me from feeling terrible- even now.

I felt terrible for not helping him. I felt terrible for not telling him that I was an earth bender.

And a fire bender.

And a water bender.

And an air bender.

The city is black and white. Figuratively speaking.

A gray city filled with black and white buildings that were filled with black and white people living black and white lives.

This is what I told myself.

Only lights have color; the greenish glow of the streetlights and the turquoise sunset. Green was supposed to be a good color, right? Didn't green symbolize good fortune or nature or something like that? Did turquoise count as green? Surely it did.

I began walking faster towards my black house at the end of the road. It was the last house on the right, but not really. There was another house after us, but no one lived there. People used to though. So I guess, in a way, we were the last house on the right.

As I approached my house, I thought of Republic City and decided it was really a gray city. A mixture of black and white.

Well, there's a whole other group for gray too I guess..

I changed my mind again and concluded that it was just a monochromatic city. There was gray and black and white. It was in the people and in the buildings.

The house before mine was black, figuratively. There was a black family living inside, also figuratively. There was a gray girl, though. She never came outside.

The house that was really the last house on the right used to have a white family inside. Figuratively and literally. But their figurative whiteness is why they're gone.

My door wasn't black, but it might as well have been.

The brass doorknob shone in great contrast to the washed out door behind it. What once was a rich mahogany color was now a dull brown that wasn't much different than the color of an old copper piece. It was brown, but also very gray.

The heat in my hand quickly transferred to the doorknob, leaving the hairs on my hand standing straight up as it twisted the shiny, golden colored orb in its grasp and caused the door to give under the force I was applying to it.

My entrance was announced with a loud creaking sound as I stepped into the warm, welcoming room. All eyes turned to me as the candles that were lit throughout the house flickered with the breeze I brought with opening the door.

Three pairs of eyes watched closely as I pressed my back against the door's wooden surface and closed it against the force of the wind, looking away once it shut with a loud, satisfying click.

"Where have you been?" my father asked, looking back down at the newspaper.

"I left work late and I missed the bus." I breathed, hanging my thick jacket on the coat rack next to the door.

"Why were you late leaving?" my mother asked loudly as she stood up and walked to the kitchen.

"We got busy right before closing time." I said unsteadily as I followed my mother into the kitchen, remembering the swarm of hungry workers who had found their way to the diner only an hour before it was time to clock out.

"Construction workers again?" my mother continued, handing me a plate of roast duck.

I nodded my head as I sat down, scrunching my nose at the thought of their grimy hands. The diner smelled of sweat and metal as soon as they had entered, and I know I wasn't the only one in the buildings who had been wondering if any of them were metal benders. All eyes had turned to the chi-blocker that was assigned to the facility, who nodded in understanding as he closely examined each of the men who had just entered. It was city ordinance that every public building was required to have at least one chi-blocker guard the facility during operating hours.

My thoughts were halted as my twin brother sat down in front of me, knocking on the table to get my attention.

"Yeah? " I asked with a full mouth. I looked around for something to drink and he knowingly poured me a glass of tea before continuing.

"Dad said they found another one."

I arched one eyebrow before swallowing my food and washing it down with a large gulp of hot tea. What was he talking about?

"Ouch, I just burnt my throat." I laughed, placing my hand over the outside of my neck.

My brother laughed back at me, his green eyes sparkling with enthusiasm, "Not as bad as those firebenders would have!"

If I had food in my mouth I would have choked on it. Instead, I put down my fork. "Wait, they found another bending ring?"

"Yep, right inside of Republic City. The newspaper said it was a bending circuit."

"Really?"

"Crazy, right? Those mutants had the audacity to do something so foolish right in the heart of the most anti-bending city in the world!"

"Language." my mother said loudly, causing my brother to laugh at his slip of what might as well have been a racial slur.

"Sorry, mom." he said, not attempting in the slightest to disguise his laughter.

"How many did they bust?" I said, trying to regain his attention.

"I think they only caught six, but there was evidence that led the police to believe that there's dozens of them still out there."

"Was it only firebenders?" I asked, taking another bite of my food.

"No, I don't think so. Dad! Was it only firebenders they caught under the monument?"

The bending ring was under the monument of Amon? That's the most foolish-

"No, the police think that the bending circuit requires the team members to be different bending races. One of each element."

My brother nodded his head and looked back at me, raising his eyebrows. "Yeah, but isn't that scary?"

I nodded my head and took another drink of water, looking back down at my plate.

"I'm full." I said, pushing my chair back from the table.

My mom chastised me immediately, "No young lady, you're not going to bed hungry."

I sighed and pleaded with her, "Come on mom, I'm tired and I'm not hungry. I've been working all afternoon, I just want to go to bed."

She rolled her eyes and looked at my father, who was finishing up the paper, "Just let her go to bed without eating." he looked up at me, "Just don't complain about being hungry later."

I nodded my head and scraped the remains of my food into a bowl on the stove and ran upstairs towards my room. I slowed down when I passed my parents room, pausing to look inside the open door.

My eyes went straight to the bookshelf and I tiptoed towards it, scanning over each of the thick spines before my eyes landed on a familiar, wide, leather photo album. I grabbed it from its place and ran to my room, shutting the door behind me.

I lit a candle next to my bed and placed a clear vase over it, causing its light to reflect off of the edges of the glass and cast a soft glow over my quilted bed. I curled up under the thick comforter after taking a quick bath and saying goodnight to my family. I pulled the stolen photo album out of my night stand and flipped through the pages of grayscale pictures from when my parents were growing up.

My father was an only child and my mother had what seemed like a thousand brothers and sisters.

My dad was very handsome and very skilled at almost everything. This didn't help him to impress his parents, who had anticipated an earthbending son to continue their strong bloodline of earthbenders.

My mother wasn't beautiful, but she wasn't ugly either. She's was pretty, just in a very plain and classic way. It seemed the only thing she inherited from her parents, who were also from families known for their good looks and earthbending prowess, was their fortune.

I continued to analyze the pictures, which told the story of my parents. I tried to look deep into them and put myself into each scene. I wanted to see my mom when she was at her oldest sisters wedding. I wanted to be with my dad when he smiled for a picture with his parents.

I frowned, trying to imagine what my grandparents looked like. All of their faces had been cut out of the photo album, on both sides of the family. This made what I was trying to do very hard.

"You look just like your grandmother."

This is what my mother always told me. This is also what my father always told me.

I took it as a compliment, considering both of them evidently had at least somewhat attractive mothers, but I couldn't help but wonder which grandmother it was I looked like.

I frowned when I reached the last page, failing once again to find a picture that included a face of either set of my grandparents.

My heart skipped as a buzzing sound, one not unlike the noise the streetlamp had made earlier, echoed down the hallway. I ran to the door and saw both of my parents putting on a pair of equalist gloves.

I quickly put my head back inside my room and slid the photo album under my bed, using firebending to snuff the light out on my nightstand.

I nestled myself under the comforter and listened for my mother's footsteps coming towards my room. She opened my door and smiled, her long fingers grasping the edge of the door tightly.

"Do you want to sleep in my room with your brother? I can light a candle for the two of you."

I nodded my head and ran to the living room to grab the green vase, carrying it up to my parents bedroom.

"Are you going on another raid?" I asked, moving my large comforter onto the loveseat across from their bed. I was way too old to sleep on the same bed as my brother.

"Yes, dear. Your father and I think we should be able to leave the two of you here while we're out, as long as you keep the door locked." she looked into my eyes and smiled, pulling me closer to her for a hug.

I hugged her back, watching as my brother entered the room with his own comforter. I guess he had the same idea in mind. I quickly removed myself from my mother's grasp and grabbed the comforter off of the loveseat and jumped onto the bed, laughing as I claimed the comfortable mattress as my own for the night.

He huffed in response, but shrugged his shoulders as he took a match from our mother and placed the candle inside of the vase.

"I'll see you two later. Make sure you lock the door." we nodded our heads and followed them out, locking the door behind them.

"So, the raids are starting again."

"Yeah, " my brother responded to my statement as we walked back to the room, "Only because they have a lead on where the benders are I think."

I nodded my head, "Its crazy that there's still benders in the city."

"I know, and to think those dangerous people have been living right under our noses."

I couldn't help but laugh, if only he knew.

It happened.

No one was talking about it, but there was a silence that I could feel around me that confirmed that everyone knew.

It was a heavy silence, and it was very uncomfortable. I tried shifting around to make a little noise so that my ears could relax, but I couldn't move forever.

The people around me gave me sideways glances as I moved my purse into my lap, their knowing eyes bearing no judgment against me for trying to avoid the lack of noise on the bus.

I could hear myself blink. I don't think I've ever done that before.

As I mulled over this, an older man lost his grip and dropped his briefcase loudly on the metal floor of the bus.

His pale face quickly became a rich red color as he attempted to quietly laugh off his embarrassment and pick up his things, the shuffling noise he was making allowing me a temporary release from the annoying silence.

It really was annoying, not hearing anything. Normally there was at least a rhythmic tapping noise of some impatient or bored person knocking their fingers on the window or the occasional yawn or other bodily noise. I couldn't even hear anyone sighing loudly, much less breathing at all.

Maybe I was deaf.

I blinked as I thought this, growing frustrated with how loud my eyelids were compared to the twelve or so people standing around me. How was it possible for a bus, of all things, to be this noiseless?

We stopped and I looked out the window, appreciating for the first time the sound of a door opening. There was only one person waiting at the bus stop, something I never thought would make me upset. I glanced at him as he stepped on the bus, relishing in the echoes of his light footsteps that resonated so purely throughout the bus. When he sat down, I noticed a large scar that took up the majority of his face and wasn't unlike the boy's from my childhood memory.

If he could feel me staring at him, he didn't make any attempt to recognize me for it.

I tried to stop blinking.

What was it that was causing my eyelids to be so loud? Was it the sound of them scraping against my eyes? Was it merely my imagination? This was driving me crazy.

I exhaled loudly and moved my purse around again, gaining the attention of some of the passengers. I looked behind me for the first time since I had sat down and was shocked to see that there was an animal on the bus that had managed to stay quiet for who knows how long.

The small fire ferret poked its head out from behind a red scarf and stared at me as I turned to smile at it. A small purr escaped its throat and I turned to face forward, smiling as I did so.

"We're still looking for the other two."

This was the first thing I heard my father say when he stepped into the house last night.

Who he was talking to, I have no idea.

"We only got the air and water bender." He said, pausing as the other person mumbled something to him. "Well there has to be one. It's a team!" he laughed and shut the door after saying goodbye.

My brother jumped out of bed, running to ask my father how the raids went. He forgot to unlock the door at first, and I laughed as he failed to open the door on his first try. He rolled his eyes at me and quickly unlocked the door then ran downstairs, leaving me in the room by myself.

"How many this time?" He practically yelled.

"Too many. The only thing I admire about those benders is their ability to hide so dang well."

I was surprised my dad didn't use any racial slurs in the sentence. My mother must be inside with him.

"Did you bust any more in the bending circuit?"

"Yeah, we found a whole team but half of them got away."

"At least you got two!"

"Well neither one of them was an earth bender so it's not like it matters."

I heard him fall back into his chair, sighing loudly.

I rolled over and looked up at my parent's ceiling, pondering momentarily why they would need earth benders. Maybe they were building something and they needed earth benders?

I sat up and breathed deeply, closing my eyes to think.

Oh yeah, an earth bender is the next avatar in the cycle.

I swallowed hard; it would be just my luck that the avatar was born into an equalist family.

The bus ran into something and stopped abruptly, causing me to fall forward and out of my thoughts as well as my bus seat. Several people around me had suffered the same way; including the boy that bore a striking resemblance to the Agni family child I had met several years prior.

"What's going on?" A man in the back yelled at the bus driver.

He merely shrugged his shoulders in response as he began to step off the bus and see what had happened.

"I didn't even see anything in front of us when we stopped." An older woman said quietly as she began to grab her things hurriedly.

Several people's eyes grew wide as she said this, following her lead and attempting to exit the bus.

The sound of the metal bus crunching around us soon overwhelmed the noise of people yelling at each other to move and pushing each other out of the way.

I felt my blood begin to rush to one side of my head and my center of gravity followed suit. The bus was beginning to tilt to one side at the will of several metal benders who were standing around it. The people sitting on the side of the bus opposite mine began falling towards my side, breaking the glass windows as they landed on top of them.

I held onto the seats beside me to keep from falling backwards into the window next to me. Once the bus was almost all the way on its side, I stood up on the edge of my seat and attempted to open the window that was now above me. I pulled myself out of what was now the top of the bus and jumped onto the road beside me, the shock of the solid ground meeting with my legs sending a shock through me that prevented me from walking for several seconds.

As I stood, crouched behind the bus, I noticed several large cuts on my forearms from the glass and other debris that had been thrown about the inside of the bus.

A couple of people followed my example and began jumping out of the side/top of the bus, each of them experiencing the same shock sensation I had once they made contact with the ground.

One of them was the Agni boy. I couldn't remember his first name, or I would have said it out loud. I watched as he winced slightly when he landed, but quickly began running down the road almost immediately after.

I knew this pain was nothing to what he had experienced in the past, and I wanted so badly to tell him who I was- so I followed him.

"Hey! Wait up!" I called after him, ignoring the stinging sensation in my arms as I reached towards the running boy.

He turned his head back slightly, but continued running away from the scene.

I began to run faster, but was stopped by a chunk of earth that was sent flying towards my legs.

"Aaaagh!" I screamed, falling to the ground as I heard my bones crack beneath me.

Tears ran down my face, the salt stinging the open wounds on my checks caused by the glass from the bus. I rolled over on my stomach, attempting to drag myself towards a nearby building for some reason.

After a few seconds, I stopped because I realized that going towards the building wasn't really going to be of any use to me. Instead, I drug myself towards where the boy had been running, wincing as my broken limbs scraped the road as I moved.

I turned to look at the bus, noticing that several of the passengers were now fighting the metalbenders. Sweat, blood, and tears were pouring down my face and I had no choice but to keep going before someone noticed I was hurt and took advantage of my vulnerability.

Could I risk using earth bending to help me? Before I had time to dwell on that thought, I was scooped up by a boy with short, brown hair that he wore in a ponytail on the top of his head.

I winced and cried out in pain as he did this, my legs unable to support their own weight.

His eyes grew wide as he sat me down, "Did one of the metalbenders just do this to you?"

I gritted my teeth and nodded my head, turning away quickly once I caught a glimpse of my lower body.

It was a gruesome sight; my legs were bloody and crooked, bent in a way I had only seen a contortionist do in a circus once-and even then I wasn't sure she was in her right mind. Actually, this may have been more dramatic than the contortionist.

Regardless, my legs were definitely broken. "Can I take you to get help?" he asked me, his blue eyes pleading.

I tried to smile and nodded my head, "Please."

He examined my legs for a few seconds before looking around. There were a few cars parked on the sides of the road, but other than that there was only an abandoned community garden nearby left to provide to the scenery.

"Don't move. I'll be right back." he said before running off towards the garden.

He returned shortly with a wheelbarrow and a proud grin on his face. He helped me sit in the rusty object and began pushing me down the sidewalk.

"You know, that was pretty insensitive of me."

"What?"

"Telling you not to move. Like, you know. Because you can't, uh, do that. Right now."

I raised my eyebrows, "Yeah, I guess you're right about that."

"About me being insensitive or you not being able to walk?"

I laughed, "Definitely the latter, but I'll overlook the former this time. Only because it was a high-stress situation."

"Well hopefully this will be the first and last time this happens. I'd find it pretty suspicious if you just kept having your legs broken."

I didn't say anything back, not because I didn't have anything to say but because I was too exhausted to say anything. Have I lost a lot of blood? I looked at my legs, which were still bleeding.

Oh yeah, I definitely was losing a lot of blood.

"It's kind of hot."

"Are you kidding me? There's still snow on the ground!"

It was super hot. I tried to look up at him and nod my head, but I couldn't convince my body to move.

I looked around, my vision slowly tunneling in to where I could see little more than what was right in front of me. I blinked, and when I opened my eyes I was indoors.

I've never used waterbending before.

I haven't ever really had the opportunity to practice any sort of bending- but waterbending is something that I've never been able to fully control.

I would try to shield myself from the rain with it or use it while taking a bath to rinse out my hair- but I could never make the water move an inch.

The young lady that currently stood over me, however, was clearly a master of this element. Her glowing hands ran up and down my broken legs in an attempt to heal them. The cuts on my arms were no longer visible, and my broken legs were the only injuries left.

I let out an involuntary groan as my head began to throb, capturing the attention of many of the people who surrounded me.

My ears were ringing, but I could still faintly hear when the boy from earlier spoke to me, "How ya holdin up?"

I looked down at my legs, "Well, I'm not holding anything."

Why did I say that?

He arched an eyebrow at me, "Well yes, I realize this. Do you feel better? You blacked out on us for a couple hours."

I tried to shrug my shoulders, "I guess I feel better. My ears are ringing really bad."

My forehead began to grow hot once more and I laid back, feeling the sweat begin to run down my face.

"She's already lost too much blood. Don't try to make her overexert herself, Sokka." The brown-haired girl who was tending to my wounds spoke loudly, not looking up from her work.

Another girl who was standing nearby brought a bowl of water close to the healer, who did little more than flick a finger in the bowl's direction and layered its surface in a thin layer of ice.

The short haired girl who was carrying the bowl smiled and put a rag inside the bowl, breaking up the ice and allowing it to soak up much of the cold water. She squeezed it out and folded it before placing it on my head.

"That better?" she asked, smiling down at me.

I nodded my head.

"I'm Suki." She girl began, "And the healer is Katara."

For the first time since I had returned to consciousness, I had wondered why the healer was so comfortable using her bending around me. Surely she didn't know that I was a bender, so it wouldn't make sense for her to use her powers so carelessly.

"Are all of you benders?" I asked, giving Suki a quizzical look.

The two girls turned to look at Sokka, whose eyes grew wide with his sudden realization that he had no idea if I was an equalist or not.

"Sokka," Katara began patronizingly, standing up and dusting off her dress as she placed her hands on her hips, "Did you not ask her if she was a bender?"

He placed his hands up by his head, surrendering himself to the girls' wrath, "She was hurt and I brought her over here, she was bleeding a whole lot so I didn't really think to ask. It slipped my mind."

The trio looked back at me, waiting for an answer.

"I, er, uh-"

"See, Sokka! She's an equalist!" Katara said, grabbing him by the ear and pulling him down closer to her face.

"No! I promise I'm not an equalist, I'm a bender."

Katara looked at me then back at her brother, releasing his ear as both of them sighed in relief.

"Earth?" Suki asked, taking note of my green eyes.

Should I tell them I'm the Avatar?

I shook my head, "No, I'm a fire bender."

It's the element I'm halfway decent with- might as well say that one.

"Then why didn't you fight back at the bus?" Sokka asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I'm not very good. I've never had a master."

The three of them grouped together, whispering quietly while I was still lying down.

Sokka looked over his shoulder and back at me, "Mako could teach her."

Katara and Suki both nodded their heads, looking at me expectantly.

"Yeah, I'd love to learn."

Katara and Suki smiled at me, "Do you know any other fire benders, or any other benders in general?" Suki asked.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, "No, everyone in my family is an equalist."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N - I actually started writing this story a couple years ago and it was published briefly but I never got around to finishing it since life has this funny way of getting you away from things that MATTER like writing ATLA and LOK fanfics. I have some ideas for how I want this to pan out but I'd love some feedback if you have it, even if it's just to tell me I suck or something.**

"Where are we?" I asked immediately, trying to avoid pressing questions about my family while looking around at the large, well-lit room. It seemed oddly clean from what I'd always pictured benders' hideouts looking like. I just always assumed they dwelled in the sewers or something, not somewhere so hospital-like.

"We're a couple dozen miles outside of the city." The girl who had introduced herself as Suki stated, placing the rag back into the ice cold water before folding it and returning it to my forehead.

"Are we underground or something? How are you hiding so many benders here? How many of you are there?" I began to spit out more questions before I was interrupted by Katara.

"Calm down, you don't need to get so worked up right at the moment. Plus, I think it's us who should be asking you all the questions for the time being. It seems a little too convenient that Sokka just _happened_ to stumble upon a bender after that attack."

"Did you guys have anything to do with that?" I ignored the eye-roll that Katara gave me but acknowledged it internally, she did have a point about them being the ones who should be asking me questions.

"No, we aren't quite as publically aggressive as those guys." A low voice answered from the back of the room.

I tried to turn my head to see who it was that had spoken, but they instead walked to my bedside in my line of vision. I vaguely recognized him as the boy with the fire ferret that was also on the bus with me during the attack.

Before I spoke again, I dwelled for a moment about how crazy it was that I was surrounded by so many benders, even before this moment. How could I be so dense as to not think that there would be other people like me that kept their talents secret and led normal lives, just like every other non-bender? Who knows how many people she came in contact with every day, especially at the diner, that probably thought of her the same way she thought of them - as regular people who don't have to hide from the world.

"You were there." I whispered, my eyes fixated on the red scarf he wore around his neck.

He nodded his head, "I'm Mako. I guess I'll be seeing you around."

He then walked out of the room, Sokka taking his place by my bed.

"What do you mean everyone in your family is an equalist?" He said as he sat down.

"I mean exactly what I said. My mom and dad and twin brother, all of them are very openly anti-bending. My parents even work for the city."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Katara said as she waterbended sweat from her forehead.

I thought of how cool it was that she had so much control over her bending, how do people even train their bending without being caught? I'm sure it's probably easier if you have family that is supportive, but still. I get nervous lighting candles with my bending around the house, much less practicing it and perfecting it as a skill.

"My mom and dad are both on the Bender Assault Squad, and my dad is the Lieutenant of the inner city precinct."

Many cuss words were said throughout the room before I heard Sokka throw his head into his hands, the skin hitting skin in a loud slapping sound.

"Of course I would have rescued Lieutenant Butahka's fucking daughter, of all people. Spirits alive.. what are the odds?" he stood up and used both of his hands to pull the hair on the top of his head.

I had to admit, it was pretty bad luck on his part. But not so much for me.

Shit.

My parents.

How am I supposed to explain this to them? I've evidently been gone for hours, and they definitely know that it was my bus that was attacked by now. They probably called and heard that I hadn't shown up for work and didn't find any trace of me at the crime scene, unless I left my bag.

"Did I have my bag with me when you got me?"

Suki nodded her head and picked it up off of the floor, "Do you need something from it?"

"No, I just didn't want to have left it around that bus."

"What's going to happen when your parents start looking for you?" She asked me, setting my bag back down on the floor.

I shrugged my shoulders weakly, "I have no clue."

As soon as I finished speaking, Mako returned to the room. "What about your parents?"

Katara looked up at him, "Both of her parents are fucking BAS."

I heard Mako cuss under his breath.

"And get this," Sokka began hysterically, "Her dad is Lieutenant Butakha."

Mako quickly turned his attention to me, " _Your_ dad is Butakha?" he smiled and shook his head, "How do we know you aren't a spy or something? Prove that you're a bender."

I looked around the room for a candle to light, but when I didn't see one I decided to just produce a small flame in the palm of my hand.

I saw everyone nod their heads.

"Wait a minute," Sokka said, turning his head to me, "I thought the Butakhas were an earth bending family, and your mother is from a bending family too! Why are you a fire bender?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "How am I supposed to know that?" I tried to sound convincing, but I couldn't help but wonder why I was lying to them. They're helping me, wouldn't showing them I'm the avatar make them trust me? Should I just tell them?

Mako sat down in a chair against the wall, "How are her legs?"

"Better," Katara answered, "They aren't completely broken anymore, but I think I could heal them all the way if I had another day with her."

"Do you need a break?" Suki asked.

Everyone looked at Katara and waited for a response. She looked down at her hands and sighed, "Yeah, this is gonna take a while anyway." She stood up and stretched out her arms above her head, "Someone might as well show her around while I rest up." She looked at each of the people in the room, waiting for a volunteer.

"Wait, I think we should keep asking her questions." Sokka said, "I don't know if her story is lining up. How do we know this isn't some elaborate scheme to infiltrate us? For crying out loud, her "dad" just captured 6 of our guys just yesterday. She could be a spy or something."

The other people nodded their heads, agreeing with him.

"What do you want to know?" I asked, looking directly at Sokka.

"What can you say that will make us believe your story? It does seem a little too convenient that you're here now." Suki said as her and Katara sat down beside me.

I tried to sit up in my bed, but couldn't quite move my legs. Katara adjusted something behind me so that the top half of the bed sat up like I was in a chair.

Telling them I'm the avatar would certainly help me, there really isn't a reason I should keep it from them.

"Shut the door." I asked, nodding towards the open door next to Mako.

He reached over and closed it, eyeing me suspiciously.

I exhaled loudly, "I'm okay with you telling the other people here that I'm a Butakha. But I am willing to confide something in you that can't leave this room."

Everyone in the room seemed to stop breathing for a moment before Katara spoke, "Is this something that we would need to tell our higher-up?"

I thought about it and then nodded my head, they probably would end up telling their leader or whoever anyway.

"I'll go get him." Suki said as she rushed out of the room.

The room was silent in the few minutes that passed before Suki returned with their leader. "I already explained to him your background."

The boy with the scar on his face entered the room behind her, "I understand you're a fire-bending Butakha. My name's Zuko, now let's hear what you have to say."

He was very straight and to the point and I kind of admired that. I was expecting some sort of long introduction from him about why he's important or something like that, but it was short and sweet.

Zuko Agni.

"You're the boy." I said, having waited a large part of my life to see him again, to apologize for not helping him as much as I could have so long ago.

"What?"

I began stammering as I tried to get the words out of my mouth, my emotions overcoming me and tears welling up in my eyes, "The boy, in the alley."

Zuko's jaw dropped as I said this, his face dumbfounded from what I'd said.

Everyone's eyes widened as they waited a response from Zuko.  
"Wait a minute, you're -" He shook his head in disbelief, " _You're_ the girl?"

Everyone's eyes shifted to me simultaneously, I could only manage to nod my head as I pursed my lips together and continued to cry, "I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what? You helped me."

"But I could have helped you more, I just stood there, afraid of what would've happened to me if I tried to stop him. I'm so so so sorry, Zuko. I really am, I think about it all the-"

"Stop apologizing. He would've hurt you too if you had tried."

I closed my eyes and let the tears run down my face.

A minute or two passed before Sokka broke the silence, "Is that what you had to tell us? That you're the girl that didn't leave Zuko to die in that alley? How could you have known that we would bring him in here?"

I shook my head, answering only his last question, "I didn't."

"Well, out with it then." he started, "I mean, this alone really is enough for us to believe that you're good, but if what you were going to tell us is something that can really help then I can assure you that it will be kept secret."

The group nodded their heads agreeingly.

I nodded my head along with them before I spoke, "I lied earlier when I said I didn't know why I was a firebender."

Everyone in the room held their breath and leaned forward on the edge of their seats, waiting for me to elaborate.

I looked around the room for some kind of piece of earth so that I could show them what I meant, but didn't see anything useful. I had a very small grasp of air-bending, so I tried to think of a way to use it in a dramatic-reveal sort of way.

I reached in my pockets for some bus tokens and coins and held them in the palm of my hand, hovering my other hand over them before airbending them in circles between my hands.

"Are you-" Katara began. I looked at her knowingly and nodded my head.

"Holy shit." Zuko whispered under his breath.

I put the coins back into my pocket and waited for someone to speak.

"So you're-" Sokka began, his eyes wide.

"The avatar." Suki and Zuko said at the same time.

"Yeah." I didn't really know what else to say.

Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes more before Zuko spoke.

"Don't tell anyone about this. This stays between everyone in this room. We can't have word getting out to the authorities that there are rumors of the avatar having been discovered."

Sokka laughed, "What are the fucking odds? I mean seriously you guys? This is the biggest stroke of luck we've ever had."

Zuko nodded his head, "Show her around Sokka."

"But what about my parents?" I asked, hoping they would offer me a solution to my dilemma, "They're going to be looking for me."

They all looked at their leader for wisdom, waiting for him to answer.

"I guess they are." was all he said before he left the room, leaving the door open behind him.


End file.
